Klarinet Archive - Posting 000601.txt from 2000/08

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] The Hobbit
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 17:37:15 -0400

Bill Wright wrote,
>....and since there are some U.K. folks on this list, may I go
>completely off topic and ask if "attercop" ad "tomnoddy" are part of
>everyday U.K. slang (I hope I haven't typed anything truly foul), or are
>they Tolkien's invented words?

I'm from the former colonies, but if a member of the Mythopoeic Society may
chime in (with the Oxford English Dictionary as reference), "attercop" is one
of the oldest words in the English language, by way of Anglo Saxon,
"attorcoppa". "Attor" is poison and "coppa" is cup, or cob. The poison-cup
is a spider (hence the word "cobweb" -- the web of the cob). If I remember
right, the context in Tolkien was the lair of Shelob, the gigantic spider.
The hobbits taunted her, "Attercop, attercop!" She took this as an ethnic
slur, lost her temper and made a fatal mistake.

"Tomnoddy" is also an old word, though it dates back only to the 18th
century, when it was a Scottish nickname for the puffin, an aquatic bird,
graceful in the ocean, that waddles around in a rather doddering and
silly-looking way in its gaudy feathers when out of the water. By the early
19th century, the word had migrated to England and had taken on the secondary
meaning of "fool," similar to "tom-fool."

As a scholar of the history of the English language, Tolkien loved to use
obsolete and curious words. Although his character names are often
"portmanteau words" in the style of Lewis Carroll, I believe Tolkien very
rarely made up a word from nothing. Bill, I think you're safe in quoting
anything Tolkien ever wrote for publication without fear of giving offense.
I've never seen a modern dirty word in any of his writings.

Lelia
~~~~~~~~~~~
What's the difference between monkeys and humans?
Monkeys don't have guns.
~~~~~~~~~~~

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